This invention relates to a lounge chair, more particularly relates to a lightweight folding lounge chair, which is capable of being easily folded from its open seating position to a flat planar and has a cover that can easily be removed, washed, and replaced by the customer.
Folding lounge chairs are well known in prior art and are used both indoors and outdoors. Key features are comfort to sit for long periods of time, ease of folding and compactness for portability. However conventional folding lounge chairs demonstrate shortcomings, which significantly hinder their more widespread acceptance and use. Particularly well-known example is the folding butterfly chair, which serves a similar function and market as the present invention. However the butterfly chair suffers from being uncomfortable to sit in for long periods of time as it has very little back support and the sling design of the covers causes the user""s legs to feel pinched. Also, because the butterfly chair""s canvas covers are supported in only four places, the chair""s covers have a tendency to tear at stress points. The chairs designed by Kwon in U.S. Design No. D310605, by Hoffman in U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,130 and by Tang in British Pat. No. 6179374B1 are examples of folding lounge chairs which fold very compactly with crisscrossing leg structures under the seat, however since each of these chairs has canvas covers that is supported at points along the edge of the canvas instead of the full perimeter of the canvas like the present invention, the chairs are less comfortable than the present invention. There consequently exists the need for a lightweight, comfortable, compact, easy to fold folding lounge chair that is both stylish and reasonably priced.
The present invention solves the above stated as well as other needs and resolves the aforesaid shortcomings of conventional folding lounge chairs. The present invention provides a lightweight folding lounge chair, which is easily folded from its open seating position to a flat planar configuration, comprising an outer ring frame of a generally oval shape tilted at an upward angle to support a fabric panel shaped to form a backrest and seat. Said outer ring frame is supported at the tilted upward angle by three or more V shaped legs with each V shaped leg attached pivotally to the ring frame in two places (at the top of each of the arms of the V shaped legs) so as to allow each V shaped leg to fold into the same plane as the outer ring frame. Two of said V shaped legs each has one arm crossing another arm of the other V shaped leg and a third V shaped leg having a single rod extending from the apex of the V and detachably intersecting with the crossing of said two V shaped legs, said single rod being used to lock the structure of the chair into the seating position or when detached, allowing the structure to collapse into a flat planar configuration.
In accordance with the foregoing it is an object to the present invention to provide a lounge chair, which can be easily folded and unfolded as to be compact for storage and easily transported for outdoor use.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a lounge chair, which is comfortable to sit in for long periods of time and provides good back support as well as seat support.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a folding lounge chair that is constructed of a minimum of parts so that it is both easy to manufacture and reasonably priced to the customer.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a folding lounge chair with a cover that can easily be removed, washed, and replaced by the customer.